Ukraine's Monobank to launch Koto app in UK

Ukraine’s Monobank is preparing to launch the Koto app and card in the UK in 2019.

On the Koto website it is offering lending services, a card, the option to send money for free, and use the card abroad with no FX fees.

At the moment there are not a lot of details as it is offering early access via email sign up.

Koto is the creation of two of Monobank’s co-founders Dima Dubilet and Misha Rogalskiy. (Oleg Gorokhovskyi is the third co-founder of Monobank.) All three of them worked at PrivatBank and used their experiences to launch Monobank in July 2017.

The latter is Ukraine’s “first” virtual bank, allowing customers to conduct transactions from their smartphones. It provides services such as paying utilities and recharging phone balances.

Monobank, which works with Universal Bank, states that it signed up 100,000 new users in its first three months of operation.

Monobank should not be confused with the Norwegian challenger of the same name. (That was founded in 2015 and is based in Bergen. It offers loans, payment insurance products, and savings accounts.)